People attending a rally in downtown Bonnyville on Sunday called for authorities to search two Winnipeg landfills for the remains of four murdered Indigenous women.
Corita Vachon, president of the Lakeland Society for Truth and Reconciliation, spoke of the pain that the women’s families are suffering and the indignity Indigenous people endure from the Manitoba government’s refusal to search the sites.
She said there are practical reasons to search the landfills. The women’s remains represent important forensic evidence that could help to convict a serial killer.
“Two serial killers’ fate depends on finding the forensic evidence,” Vachon said. “With Tanya Nepinak back in 2011-2012 the charge for murder was stayed because of lack of evidence, because they never found her body that they believed to be in the Brady Landfill.
“And three of these four women that this new serial killer is charged with are in the landfills. And if they don’t have evidence, those charges, I fear, will be stayed as well. And a serial killer would get away with murder.”
The Manitoba government has refused to search the sites for the bodies of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois, and Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, also known as Buffalo Woman. The government says a search would be too costly and potentially dangerous to searchers.
A panel of forensic experts is among those saying a search can be conducted safely.
Vachon said authorities need to learn the lessons from the 2001 Robert Pickton case.
“It might sound like a Manitoba issue,” she said. “But if it happened there, it could easily happen here in Alberta. Similar failures in our justice system happened in BC just over 20 years ago with a pig farmer.
“And because of this massive failure, several inquiries were done. Recommendations were put forward. I don’t believe they were intended only for the BC Police Service.”
